Saturday, November 1, 2014

*I am participating in something called NaBloPoMo November 2014. It is a challenge to write everyday during the month of November. Saturday and Sunday are free writes, but Mary Beth over at RevGalBlogPals offered the following prompt:

RevGalBlogPals began around 2004/5 when a group of us somehow found each other on blogs. Today, write about how you met a friend/group of friends. Where? How? How has the relationship changed; how has it stayed the same?

It was my first day of third grade, and at a new school.

Rickard Elementary. My teacher was named Mrs. Russell, and to my 8 year old self she was old and not very warm. Actually, in my mind, she looked like my Grandma Lee who died when I was very young. So, I was a little scared.

Plus, we had only been living in "town" for about a year. My mom had finally left my alcoholic father at the end of first grade--up until then, we had lived on our farm year round in Western North Dakota. We spent second grade in a tiny rental house near the first town school I had ever gone to. Imagine, going from a two room school house, where the entire first grade was four children, to town school, where there were three sections of second grade, 25 kids in a class! Not a great situation for a shy withdrawn 8 year old. But I made it through, made some friends, and was fine, for the most part.

But then, my mom remarried. And with that marriage, we moved to a different neighborhood, and a different school and now there was Mrs. Russell. And a room full of 8 year olds.

I went home for lunch that first day, and my step-dad asked me if a certain girl was in my class. Turned out, her sister was either married/dating my stepbrother (who I barely knew). I can't remember the exact timing. Indeed she was in my class, and went I went back to the playground to look for her.

My memory is that she was playing marbles, but that could be fuzzy. I know we met on the playground. And we became fast friends. Dear friends. We were in the same class in 3, 4, 5 grade; and during junior high and senior high we continued to hang out. If it hadn't been for her, I think I would have been so very lost. I considered her my best friend. My heart friend. Soul friend. For years we kept a journal, that we passed back and forth, writing to each other intermittently and mailing it back and forth......we have stayed connected closely and loosely for the past 43 years. Perhaps more loosely in the past years, but to this day, I know she would have my back if I needed her. And I am grateful.